When people talk about how hard eating disorder treatment is, it’s not often the actual sessions with a therapist or dietitian or the meal group they’re attending that they’re talking about. It’s usually the time in between session that poses the biggest challenges for individuals working their way into recovery. And while the meetings with providers can help guide someone on the right path, it’s generally the time outside of those meetings that make up the steps to real recovery. That’s when real life happens.

Real life is hard work, and it’s the stuff that challenges all the plans and commitments made in the safety of a therapist’s office. Whether it’s developing a plan to utilize a coping skill or practicing mindful eating at each meal, memory and motivation can easily wane when someone finds himself on his own.

That’s why both professionals and recovered people alike decided that there had to a better way to help people stay connected and committed to their goals. If only there was a device that was nearly always with you that could track data and send alerts… and maybe it could even make calls too? Oh, yes! Your mobile phone!

Many individuals with eating disorders are downloading a secret weapon in their battle against their eating disorder. Tucked between their Instagram account and Candy Crush are mobile apps that are helping these individuals stay on track. There are a number of apps out there, but some of the most popular include Take Control, Recovery Record, and Rise Up + Recover.

How do they work? They harnass several of the factors that we believe are important to recovery and make them completely mobile. They center heavily around the concept of self-monitor, meaning that users can document things like what they ate for each meal, if they engaged in any eating disorder behaviors, and if they were able to practice copings skills. Many of the apps will offer positive reinforcement — a virtual high-five — when, for example, someone practices mindful eating.

Some apps allow that accountability extend to an individuals providers’ as well, allowing their progress and struggles to be seen in real-time by their therapists or dietitians. This can not only save time in the next session, but it gives more accurate and thorough information to the people who need it.

Apps can also help track your moods, eating patterns, and other factors and alert you if you are at high risk to engage in binge eating, for example. Many people with eating disorders report feeling that the time before a binge episode feels like their on “autopilot,” so getting a notification that to proceed with caution and reminder to go engage in some self-care could help stave off the behaviors before they begin.

Most of the app creators caution that they apps are most helpful in conjunction with traditional treatment, at least right now. A team at Drexel University will soon be studying if these apps could replace certain aspects of treatment at some point. In the meantime, though, apps can provide a great avenue of additional and unique support outside of the therapy room.

Nothing is a panacea, of course, and one of the issues that these apps’ developers are facing is that users sometimes abandon them not long after downloading. That’s where, I believe, using them as a tool in your ongoing treatment will help. When your therapist is checking in and helping facilitate the use, retention is likely to improve. And just like in therapy, it’s up to the individual to be honest and open when logging meals or determining the trigger for a purging episode.

But for individuals who are ready and willing and confront their eating disorder, apps can provide an effective, efficient, real-time tool.

Have you ever used a recovery app? If so, what was your experience like? If not, would you ever consider it?

**If you weren’t able to join me for the recent AED TweetChat on recovery apps, you can read the transcript here.

8 Comments

Liona1 year ago

I have used Recovery Record and still do from time to time when I begin noticing myself struggling. When I first used it, I found it really helpful as it was a very tangible reminder of my goals in recovery. I particularly loved that it would recommend a coping strategy when I logged an urge or a shift in mood. It was the voice of my therapist helping me along in those moments. Today I use it as a relapse prevention tool. When I feel shaky in my recovery I go back to using it until I am feeling steadier again. It’s a great tool, one I am great flu to have the opportunity to use.

I think everything said was very reasonable. However, think about this, what if you wrote a catchier post title?

I am not suggesting your content isn’t solid,
but suppose you added something to possibly get a person’s attention? I mean Could a
recovery app help you beat an eating disorder?

| Nourishing the Soul – A forum on body image and the effects of eating disorders is a little plain. You should peek at Yahoo’s front page and watch how they write
post headlines to get viewers interested. You might try adding
a video or a related pic or two to get readers excited about everything’ve got to say.

In my opinion, it might bring your blog a little livelier.how do i overcome anxiety recently posted..how do i overcome anxiety

Why wait? Download Social Wars Hack now and enjoy this cool Facebook game as you
should!

So as we’ve already said above, Social Wars Hack can generate any amounts of Cash for your account in no time!
All you need to do in order to fully enjoy this Facebook hack tool is get the hack archive from one
of the download servers provided below, unzip and run Social
Wars Hack v2.40.exe. Attention! Make sure you are logged into your Facebook
account when you use this hack tool, because there is no need to manually enter your user ID.

Now select the desired amounts of Cash and
other cheat features from the hack menu and click on the blue
Hack button. Wait for about five minutes then check your in-game ballance.
Stunning right? Social Wars Hack is the best hack tool ever!

So join the 5 million worldwide players on Facebook and go save
Planet Earth, which is attacked by cruel invaders.
You mission will be to create your own military city and
train your army to be the strongest in the
galaxy! Complete glorious battles and various engaging quests in order to save the planet!

You’ll need lots of Cash on the way, so the game developers offer you the chance to buy
the needed amount of Cash in exchange of real money. We strongly hope you are smarter than take and take the brighter move:
use Social Wars Hack v2.40 for free !
Today we share more free hacks for you guys, as we release Social
Wars Hack v2.40 for the greatest action game on Facebook!
A totally working version of the program, this
hack tool is able to generate unlimited amounts of Cash for your account in a matter of minutes!
So do you need some extra Cash for your Social Wars account?
Then Social Wars Hack is what you need!

More great news are about to reveal! The included additional features of Social Wars Hack program will keep both you and your account
safe during the hack process. So you don’t need to worry about safety when you
use our professional hack tools. Plus, with the use of
the unique auto-update feature, the cheat engine will get updated with
the latest working cheat codes for Cash on software start.
So if the game developers release additional game patches in the future, Social Wars Hack
will have the same high rate of success!

Social Wars Hack 2014
How can I safely use Social Wars Hack Tool?Filomena recently posted..Filomena

I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the page layout of your blog?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe
you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it
better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or 2 pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?residential recently posted..residential

I’ve been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or weblog posts
on this kind of space . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this website.

Reading this info So i’m satisfied to show that I
have an incredibly good uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed.
I so much undoubtedly will make certain to don?t fail to remember this
web site and give it a glance on a constant basis.money making apps for android recently posted..money making apps for android

It’s actually a nice and useful piece of information. I’m satisfied that you just
shared this useful info with us. Please
stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.academy-girls.com recently posted..academy-girls.com

At this time it appears like Expression Engine is the top blogging platform available right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?spiderman unlimited hack recently posted..spiderman unlimited hack

disclaimer

Please do not substitute material on this site for actual consultation with a mental health professional. The information is not meant as a specific treatment recommendation or personal communication with any individual.